Tomone Kaoru

"Come on, everyone throw red roses on my way ! Who should you cheer ? (Public : Tomomo !) Yes ! Now, make room for the Great Empress of Roses, Tomone Kaoru !"

- Kaoru's Stage Introduction Catchphrase 

Kaoru Tomone (寝薫 Tomone Kaoru) is a understudy of the 154th generation of AKB0048 and part of Team K.

Kaoru is well-known for her overbearing vainglorious haughtiness, her close relationship with her amnesic childhood best friend Yuihan, and above all, her obsession succeeding Oshima Yuko.

She is known as Tomomo (ともも). Kaoru is also known by the nickname Queen of Misfortune by the general public because of her permanent misfortune.

Kaoru also began a soloist career and strives to become a talented actress.

Appearance
Kaoru is a fair-skinned, average-sized girl. She has medium-length ashen blond hair that is almost always held in a messy bun, secured by chopsticks. Strangely, it includes a rebellious platinum blonde strand of hair, probably coming from her mother. Her hair is usually quite straight, but it can become pretty wavy under certain circumstances (like when she wakes up in the morning). Her eyes are pale oranged amber-coloured. Like any 00 member, Kaoru has got heart-shaped light reflections, in both her eyes and her hair. Her apppearence is notable for her slight scar on her cheek she got while deliberately trying to caress a stray cat. In her childhood, her best friend Yahiru gave her a lucky charm. Kaoru wears this amulet on her wrist no matter what.

She adopts proud, amused or annoyed facial expressions.

Having inherited the fashion sense of her mother, Kaoru takes great care of her wardrobe and dress style. She is even picky about it, being always seen wearing trendy clothes. They often include modish shirts, skirts, high waist shorts, wedge sandals, little berets and even some jewelry. She constantly makes sure to wear brand clothes or clothes that she has sewn herself. There's systematically crimson colour somewhere on what she's wearing.

Whereas it's not striking, Kaoru has started to lose weight. She does not go on a diet, but she lost weight because of the rigorous practicing she imposes to herself.

Personality
Tomomo is openly conceited, ambitious and competitive, especially towards anyone who challenge her. Her behavior tends to continually disconcert the people who meet her for the first time. She is a Kamidere, for better and for worse. This is demonstrated by her solid conviction of being undeniably perfect (and therefore 'the best of the best') at all levels, shamelessly showing a large ego that defies the size of the Universe. She holds a great delusion of grandeur and believes herself superior to everyone else, firmly thinking that everyone should adore and admire her. Albeit, fellow members tend to don't take her behavior seriously.

She is also extremely bold and over-confident; even hot-blooded; and does not hesitate to engage in heated debate with anyone. To her, few people are worthy of being in the presence of her 'splendor', unless you prove her misjudging you, which is mostly not an easy task since she is an extraordinarily headstrong person who does not easily change her mind. At the same time, she also can have a few wise words.

Thereby, as she feels she has always to be perfect, she is confident of being able to do everything on her own and refuses to admit when she needs help or let the others help her. She tries hard to maintain her proud, prideful façade, and she assures everyone she is fine when she's clearly not. Needless to say, her pride is something difficult to mitigate.

As such, she obviously fancies, relish to being center of attention and "supervising" others, much to their annoyance. Completely in love with the sound of her own voice, Tomomo comes off as a particularly out-spoken if not sharp-tongued teenager who enjoys giving her opinion and talking about her mind, absolutely not afraid telling people the hard truth; no matter how crude her words can be, which can make her look quite antagonistic or downright careless. She is very straightfoward about what she wants. So to say, because of her inability to be aware of the feelings of those around her: Kaoru has always been horrible at dealing with emotional stuffs. She is not good at expressing affection and such, which obviously does not help to build positive relationships with her pairs. In fact, her determination to maintain appearances keeps her from revealing any feelings of compassion. So, even when trying to show some benevolance, she cannot help but inevitably fall into her vain, arrogant demeanor.

On the other hand, her typical self-centered behavior is somewhat lightened when she is talking to people she regards as friends (such as Yuihan and Sasshi among others). She behaves generally more warmly around them and will not hesitate to defend them if she deems it necessary. Despite she's not exactly honest about theses friendships, she treasures (and cares about) them a lot.

Plus, Tomomo is not the girl who is used to (and hates) losing. If she loses, she will find every possible excuse -even the most ludicrous ones- to justify her defeat. She is always set to reach her goal: triumph. She wasn't used to enjoying rivalry as in her eyes; no one had the right to pretend to be at her level. However, she has grown to appreciate rivalry and challenging spirit, as evidenced by her recent interactions with Hikarin and Techi. She hates being bored. She is constantly seeks out for entertainment.

Kaoru insn't fond of authority. As she thinks herself above everyone, she can behave in a rude way with anyone, including adults, Senpai, or anyone else representing a figure of authority.

Similar to Miyoko, Kaoru stands out by her 'bad-luck magnet' function. If a ball is lost, it will fall on her head. If there is a needle on the ground, Kaoru is the one who will walk on it. Her bad luck is such that it has sometimes earned her the nickname of "Queen of Misfortune". However, out of sheer pride, Tomomo fiercely denies this fact.

Kaoru is both a victim of a superiority and inferiority complex. She does not want to be better than anyone, she is afraid of being less than anyone. She is reluctant to admit that someone can be superior to her, but at the same time she is obsessed with that same thought. Because of her father's influence, Kaoru feels like if she is not the best, she would have no value anymore. That's what she fears the most. She has vigorous need to be seen as important and to be approved, claiming that she is a better idol than everyne else, and so shouldn't be seen as anything less thant the greatest by people. In truth, Tomomo is mindful about, and respects the qualities of each of her fellow members, but her deep-seated God-complex prevents her from both admitting or showing it.

When it comes to her past, Kaoru acts very coldly. She can even get in a rage if she thinks anyone is talking rubbish about Winostar. Other than her self-importance, one of Kaoru's notable traits is that she seems to have a complete disinterest in romance and appears to have (most of the time) rather low esteem for men in general, thinking they are nothing but obstacles to her objectives.

Although she maintains her Kamidere personality onstage, she is significantly more bubbly and pleasant towards the audience.

Howerer, recently after suffering several attacks to her pride, Kaoru got frustrated and became even more wry-mouthed than usual. She spent most of her time practicing, believing she relaxed far too much.

Pre-00
Kaoru was born and raised in Winostar. She lived a rather comfortable life on the material plan with her father, an active economist and her mother, a famous stylist known throughout the galaxy if we except her supernatural bad luck. She has always had bad luck and for example, when she tried to stroke a stray cat, this one scratched her violently.

She has always been a good student but didn't see the value of having good grades if she didn't know what she wanted to do as a job later. She felt misunderstood by her parents who spent very little time with her.

Yet, her life was a completely different history on the emotional plan.

Her father has a winning mentality, which he instilled to her early. Since she was a child, her father always repeated to her that if she was not the best or less than perfect, she would have no value, whether in his eyes, or in anyone's eyes. This education heavily influenced Kaoru's mindset (and made her what she is today). This has put a lot of pressure on her, as she strived all the time to achieve absolute excellence in all areas. So much so that she unconsciously started imitating him and developed herself into a little girl who was looking down at anyone. Because of this attitude, she had few friends in her childhood, if no one, until meeting Yahiru.

In addition to that, Winostar is a planet where robots and computers decide everything. Everybody is treated equally. Whether it's a matter of a right job, a appropriate meal, the right kind of study for everyone... Due to this, Kaoru felt apathetic, empty of all wills, without any free will. Kaoru felt as if she were suffocated, to being a chained bird. She didn't feel like she lived her life and was fed up of everything.

Kaoru didn't hate Entertainment, she just had never been interested in it. In fact, she didn't care about it. That's why her little world totally changed when one day she made her first friend she met at school, who introduced her to the group AKB0048 (Entertainment was previously tolerated in Winostar, small concerts were even organized). For the first time, Kaoru had the impression to breathe, to live her life, she felt her heart beat with passion. She had finally found a meaning to her existence. They got very close after this event.

When the two friends learned that the auditions were open, they jumped at the opportunity. Kaoru wanted to succeed Yuko and Yahiru wanted to succeed Yuihan. Nonetheless, at the time, Kaoru was below the minimum age (she was only 11 years old) and Yahiru wanted them to fulfill their dream together so she intended to wait until Kaoru is 12 years old.

However, the government of Winostar, seeing that more and more young girls were turning away from robotic advice and preferring to follow their passion, began to repress the entertainment severely. On the pretext that the government computer told them that entertainment was harmful to the good development of people. The government did not want people to realize that they were manipulated and began a rebellion.

During a clandestine concert, her friend was tragically killed by the DES by trying to protect Kaoru. While she was dying, Kaoru promised her to realize their dream by overcoming the obstacles that would prevent her from accomplishing their goal by becoming a Successor in order to offer hope to and illuminate the lives of others, as the 00 did with them. Thanks to this, her friend died serenely and Kaoru ran away from DES troups with tears in her eyes. Needless to say, she felt greatly guilty of what had happened to her only friend.

Kaoru was still 11 years old, so she had to wait 1 year. These years of waiting have been extremly difficult and frustrating for Kaoru.

At age 12 and 13, Kaoru evidently tried to register for the 152nd and 153rd generation auditions, but Winostar's authorities censored all the information about it.

One year later, despite Winostar's censorship efforts, information for the 154th generation auditions reached some of Winostar's population, as well as Kaoru who wanted to take this opportunity.

Of course, her parents; especially her father- categorically refused that their daughter would participate in the auditions, but Kaoru disobey them and decided to run away, more determined than ever to do everything to make the wish of her friend and she become reality.

SC0125
In this state of mind, she auditioned with the song she saw as a perfect description of herself: Theater no Megami. She succeded to pass both rounds.

After many adventures, along with Yuuna, Marian, Miyako, Elise, Griselda and Haruki, Kaoru officially joined the AKB0048 154th Generation. She debuted with Genzai wa Fantasy janai, but she didn't center it, which annoyed her a bit.

On the first day of classes at Infinity Academy, Kaoru had a slight crush on Ryuu, but she quickly realized that their relationship was impossible. She also named her new rival : Hatsune Hikari.

During October, she attented the Sucession of one of her Senpai, which made her wonder how her own Sucession concert would be.

Kaoru also discovered that Yahiru - her best childhood friend; survived and became Yuihan, which brought her a lot of joy. She got much more closer to Yuihan after this event.

In November, one of her Senpai, whom she considered one of her main rivals, succeeded, and Kaoru wondered again: Would she change if she became a Successor? It was a prospect that both excited her and frightened her, not that she would admit it. Akarin and Hikarin were also chosen to be her buddies, although she insisted she did not need it.

In December, at Koreastar, she met the graduated member Ashley, along with Ryuu, and witnessed the epic scene where Miyagi punched Erika's big brother Justin. It has been announced that it will be one of the Centers of the next year upcoming single: Masshiro na Mirai wo Irodzukeru. Kaoru took a lot of pride in that. Especially since she fell in love with her first centered song: Arrival.

The rest of the end of the year went off without too much trouble.

SC0126
At the beginning of the year, two girls joined the 154.5 generation: Karin Nishimura and Aoi Murasaki. Although Kaoru was suspicious of them at first, she soon grew to like Karin. She despises Aoi, though.

Kaoru participated in Jyanken Taikai for the first time. She was somewhat disappointed to be ranked "just" at the 3rd position, even if this rank was enough to be one of front girls of the single. Just before Kaetai Mirai was released, her generation fellow member Miyako became Minegishi Minami on the 7th, leaving the rest of the girls. This frustrated Kaoru, who always thought she would be the first girl of her generation to become a Successor. Following this, a Team Shuffle took place and Kaoru was promoted to Team K, the same Team as Hikarin.

On April 14, Kaoru released her first solo single 「LET IT BURN」, and of course, she took a lot of pride in it.

However, she fell from the top, discovering that she wasn't be the one who center Sekiranun no Geijutsu. She expected to center songs as much as possible. Her pride has taken a hit, as in her eyes, being Center means unquestionably being the best. She wondered if she relaxed too much. She wondered if she had become imperfect. - Not to mention that her relationship with Karin got damaged. Deeply afraid of theses possibilities, she began to train much more than allowed, to the point of making several sleepless nights. Of course, she keeps it secret from everyone and nobody suspects it because externally, Kaoru still seems like her usual overconfident herself, secretly doubting herself.

While Miyagi was comatose, Kaoru felt concerned albeit Miyagi was not exactly her favorite person. Although she didn't voice it, she was also worried about Honoka's mental health and sympathized with her, having experienced such a situation after Yahiru's "death" a few years earlier. Even though things seemed to be went bad, luckily everything worked out and MiyaMiya became Successors. Kaoru was secretly relieved during their Succession concert, but she concealed this by claiming to be offended by Jurina's joke.

After the start of Sousenkyou Senbatsu, even if the Internet is not her cup of tea, Kaoru made the decision to be more active on her SNS account, in order to communicate more with her fans. By discovering that she is ranked 1re in the Preliminary Results, Kaoru's self-esteem stabilized. She has even boasted about it, affirming it was predictable, although in deep down she remains wary.

Team History
154th Generation → 154th Generation & Team K


 * Joined the 154th Generation of Trainees (SC0125, July 25th)
 * Promoted to Team K (SC0126, January 25th)

Skills
Tomomo is obviously the type to boast of her skills.

Tomomo is comfortable singing and dancing, although she has a clear preference for singing. More precisely, her greatest asset is she has excellent voice control and can switch from a weak tone to a powerful one easily. Her voice is great enough for her to start a solo career shortly after entering 00. She has some facilities to learn and memorize a song and choreography in a decent way. Plus, Kaoru knows a few Flamenco movements.

She is athletic and in excellent physical condition. She is far from harmless and experiences a series of self-defense movements that she combines with the use of Micsaber. Indeed, she has practiced fencing for five years and is very skilled at swordsmanship. According to her, she won the Junior Fencing Tournament five consecutive times. Recently, she began to want to learn how to use two Micsaber at the same time.

Tomomo is not particularly good at sniping. She has some good reflexes but that's it.

She is quite competent at the LAS. She integrated the bases naturally. Unfortunately, her deep disgust for the robots prevents her from using this gift to its full potential.

She is a very bad liar. What makes her a horrible actress, she is incapable of acting like another person and sooner or later, her true personality will reveal itself. Kaoru tries to make efforts to improve, and has more ease to acting in horror Drama or a character with a personality similar to her own. Thanks to some persistence, Kaoru has grown to appreciate acting, albeit it still happens her to forget she is acting, which can be quite problematic during the shoot.

She is a pseudo-harpist who can occasionally begin to play harp to relax. Strange fact : She doesn't like when you look at her when she does (except Yahiru) and prefers to be alone.

Tomomo is a talented seamstress and fashion designer, for it is one of the only things she learned from her mother by watching her working. Because of this, she has a good sense of fashion.

Achievements

 * -|Senbatsu Sousenkyo=


 * Senbatsu Sousenkyo SC0126 - 1st (Kami 7) (Prelims 1st)


 * -|Jyanken Taikai=
 * Jyanken Taikai SC0126 - 3rd Place (Lost to Miyabi Honoka)
 * -|AKBingo!


 * -|Lucky Ranking=

Songs
{|
 * -|A-Sides=
 * Masshiro na Mirai wo Irodzukeru - Quad Center
 * Kaetai Mirai
 * Sekirarun no Geijutsu
 * -|B-Sides=
 * valign="top" |
 * Genzai wa Fantasy janai (Kinou no Teki wa Mirai no Nakama)
 * coup d'état (Kinou no Teki wa Mirai no Nakama)
 * Melting (Kinou no Teki wa Mirai no Nakama)
 * Arrival (Masshiro na Mirai wo Irodzukeru) - Center
 * Hikari no Umi (Masshiro na Mirai wo Irodzukeru)
 * Juliet ni Naritakunai (Masshiro na Mirai wo Irodzukeru)
 * valign="top" |
 * Natsu Seifuku Confession (Masshiro na Mirai wo Irodzukeru)
 * Tomaranai Waterfall (Masshiro na Mirai wo Irodzukeru)
 * Ima wa Shinjiru (Masshiro na Mirai wo Irodzukeru)
 * Kataomoi Line (Masshiro na Mirai wo Irodzukeru)
 * C'est la vie - Hakuna Matata (Masshiro na Mirai wo Irodzukeru)
 * Oto ga Umareru (Kaetai Mirai)
 * valign="top" |
 * Yume wa Toshokan de Hibiku (Kaetai Mirai)
 * Fuson wa Nandakke? (Kaetai Mirai) - WCenter
 * Matchmaker (Kaetai Mirai)
 * Red Herring (Kaetai Mirai)
 * Hiretsuna  (Kaetai Mirai)
 * Fancy    (Kaetai Mirai)
 * Hitotsu Hitotsu Negai (Kaetai Mirai)
 * Smile Charm (Kaetai Mirai)
 * valign="top" |
 * Monochrone world (Sekirarun no Geijutsu)
 * Koishicharu Dilemma (Sekirarun no Geijutsu)
 * Promise (Sekirarun no Geijutsu)
 * Oikakete Madros (Sekirarun no Geijutsu)
 * Ima Koko de Iru (Sekirarun no Geijutsu)
 * MECHANICAL HEART (Sekirarun no Geijutsu) - Center
 * Don't Cry - Center (Sekirarun no Geijutsu)
 * Fate (Sekirarun no Geijutsu)

Solo Singles

 * -|A-sides=
 * 「LET IT BURN」
 * -|B-sides=
 * Believe
 * Poker Face ft. Nishimura Karin
 * Bravely
 * SAVAGE Chikai
 * Beginner


 * -|Stages=


 * K2 (Wakaku Shindara) - 1st Step (Center)
 * K2 (Wakaku Shindara) - Liar (WCenter)


 * -|Other Songs=


 * L'Aube de ma Renaissance ( Character Song )
 * Rêverie  (Kakkoi & Kawaii)
 * Hypnotist (Kimi wo Mamoru Satellite)

Career

 * -|Acting=
 * Prototype - Kaneki Ciel ( Lead )
 * Koi no Kensaku - Tano Ito

Etymology
Kaoru (薫):

This first name has no special meaning. Although mixed, Kaoru absolutely hates being called by her first name because he is too "masculine" for her and will ignore or scold anyone calling her by her first name.

Because of her first name, she is often confused with a boy. She greatly prefers to be called by her surname or her nickname.

Tomone (共寝):

Like with her first name, her surname has no precise meaning. It can however be translated as sleeping together, and the reason for such a name is unknown.

Due to the fact that Kaoru absolutely hates being called by her first name because she despises it and that calling by her last name sounded too "formal", Yahiru was the first one to propose nicknaming her Tomomo (ともも), which she sometimes shortened to Tomo (とお).

Loudy is the nickname that Ryuu gave her, a direct reference to her loud and boast personality. Kaoru secretly likes it.

Kacchan (かっちゃん) is a nickname created by Honoka, the 00s' official Nicknamer, that Kaoru has had a hard time accepting, however she tolerated it if it is accompanied by her first nickname. After Honoka defeated her at the Jyanken, Kaoru finally accepted the nickname.

Quotes

 * "Come on, everyone throw red roses on my way ! Who should you cheer ? (Public : Tomomo !) Yes ! Now, make room for the Great Empress of Roses, Tomone Kaoru ! " - Kaoru's Stage Introduction Catchphrase.
 * "I don't just want to succeed Yuko Oshima. I will succeed Yuko Oshima. That's the difference between me and all those who want to do the same. I am Tomone Kaoru, understudy of AKB0048's 154th generation and next Yuko ! " - Kaoru's Catchphrase.
 * "For me, every idol has an aura of her own, and an understudy will succeed the successor which has an aura compatible with her own. " - Kaoru explaining her theory about the Succession phenomenon at Mirai's Succession concert.

Trivia

 * Favourite New Era Song : Arrival
 * Audition Song : Theater no Megami
 * Favourite Colours : Crimson and Golden
 * Penlight Colour : Crimson
 * Favourite Word : Victory (勝利)
 * Favourite Drink: Lemonade
 * Favourite Foods : Coffee Éclair, Tomato basil
 * She always manages to have some Éclairs at hand.
 * Favourite Animals : Frogs, Lions
 * Favourite Flower : Red roses
 * Favourite Seasons : Summer, Spring
 * Mottos: "From where I’m sitting, I am the centre of the Universe." "I don't care what you think unless it is about me."
 * Charm Point : Her haughty smile
 * Blood Type : AB
 * Horoscope : Scorpio
 * Special Skill : Boasting
 * Hobbies : Singing, practicing fencing and self-defense, drawing fashion sketches, graphic design and sewing clothes, debating, playing the harp
 * She knows how to play the harp, even if it is just a hobby for her.
 * Kaoru has her own Kirara. It is key-shaped and pastel silver-coloured. Ironically, the key is supposed to be a lucky object while Kaoru is very unlucky.
 * She has a second ace-shaped Kirara, burning orange coloured with four eyes.
 * She commonly refers herself as "Kono Watashi" (この 私).
 * Kaoru speaks fluently the three official languages of Winostar : Japanese, French and English.
 * She has a habit of saying words in French when she is in an intense mood.
 * She tends to uses nicknames only when she is annoyed by someone or when she "appreciates" someone.
 * She is a bit narcissistic and has proved potentially affected with Borderline Personality Disorder, describing a simple rustle of wind as a "flop of applause." And Yahiru's death only aggravated her mental health because she thinks she's become alone again and feels guilty.


 * Kaoru suffers from Ailurophobia, she considers cats as evil creatures. This is actually because she had a very bad unlucky experience with one of the them who left her that scar as a souvenir.
 * Kaoru hates robots. This is related to her past.
 * Although she is not fond of the Internet, Kaoru has newly decided to become more active on her social media because it is a way to be closer to her fans.
 * When Kaoru will be older, in order to "rescue" Winostar she intends to become a Revolutionary Leader.
 * She shares her voice actress with Saber Red alias Nero, a Servant of the Fate franchise who has many similarities with Tomomo :
 * They are both arrogant but really kind-hearted and wish happiness to their loved ones.
 * They are both very gifted swordswomen.
 * They love the crimson color.
 * They love red roses that symbolize their passion.
 * They adore an "art" which requires to stage, the theater for one of them, the concerts for the other.
 * And finally, they have for a hairstyle a bun.
 * Some theories would like Tomomo to be also the female counterpart of Bakugou Katsuki, a main character of the anime and manga Boku no Hero Academia.